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  • NEWSROOM: FAMOUS TREES OF TEXAS - 254

    Famous Trees of Texas - 254

    While we now have 254 counties in Texas, there were only 23 original Texas counties when the Republic of Texas gained its independence in 1836. Each county is run by a commissioners’ court, consisting of four elected commissioners and a county judge elected by voters of the county.

    These 11 trees played a historic role in the original counties, and some remain today, standing tall next to courthouses across the state.

    Fleming Oak

    Martin V. Fleming and his father arrived in Texas from Georgia in 1854. They spent their first night under the live oak that later became known as the Fleming Oak. When the county seat was established at Comanche, this same oak was on the southwest corner of the site chosen for the courthouse.

    Around 1911, Comanche’s city fathers decided to pave the courthouse square. As the workmen were busily clearing trees from the area, “Uncle Mart” Fleming, as he was then affectionately known, stopped the workmen as they approached “his tree” and politely told them he had been tying his horse to that tree for years and he was used to seeing it there.

    In 1919 Uncle Mart again came to the defense of his tree when some “uninformed” citizens talked about removing the old oak. They didn’t. In his 80’s, Fleming is quoted as saying, “They since have paid due respect to the old live oak.”

    The Fleming Oak’s benefactor has been gone for a third of a century, but his love for “his tree” lives on in the hearts of Comanche citizens, who proudly point to this living memorial of their pioneer heritage. Learn more about the Fleming Oak here.

    Fleming Oak

    Live Oak County Charter Oak

    Early in the 1850s, an assembly of Irish settlers in Fox's Settlement, later named Gussettville, decided that travel to their county seat at San Patricio was too arduous and dangerous. They, therefore, attempted to form a new county.

    Meeting under the live oak, now known as the Live Oak County Charter Oak, they discussed the matter, framed a petition, and appointed a committee to present their views to the Legislature. On February 2, 1856, an Act of the Texas Legislature created Live Oak County. Six months later the county's first officials were elected in the shade of this historic tree.

    Little remains of Gussettville today except for this tree and an iron-fenced cemetery in which rest the bodies of many early pioneers. This tree, under which the settlers met, may well have inspired the name of the new county. The Charter Oak is still alive today southeast of George West. Click here to read more about the Live Oak County Charter Oak.

    Live Oak Country Charter Oak

    Courthouse Cedar

    The Courthouse Cedar was but a sapling in January 1841, when the Congress of the Republic of Texas created Navasota (now Brazos) County. That spring, county officers were elected and the first term of district court convened in the Joseph Ferguson home, where the sapling tree grew close by.

    In 1854, a two-story frame building was erected on the site of the previous courthouse. Colonel Harvey Mitchell, considered by many as “the Father of Brazos County,” personally undertook to plant native shrubs and trees around the new courthouse. Among the trees he planted was the little redcedar that had grown near the Ferguson log cabin on the Navasota.

    In 1866, the county seat was moved three miles west to Bryan. When Brazos County's fourth courthouse, a brick structure, was erected on the present courthouse square in 1870, the historic cedar was moved from Boonville to the new site and personally nurtured by Colonel Mitchell. After nearly 23 years of service, the courthouse was judged unsafe and was replaced in 1891 by a splendid stone building.

    The sixth and present temple of justice was built in 1957. It towers protectively above Colonel Mitchell's redcedar tree, whose existence is interwoven with the history of Brazos County.

    The Courthouse Cedar was removed in 2019. Progeny grown from seeds of the tree have been planted around Brazos County as well as in the Texas A&M Forest Service Arboretum in Hudson. Click here to read more about the Courthouse Cedar.

    Courthouse Cedar

    Liberty Courthouse Oak

    This beautiful Liberty Courthouse Oak has long graced the plaza of Liberty, one of the state’s oldest towns, standing beside seven courthouses and observing the activities of two Presidents of the Republic of Texas.

    In 1831, from its location on the northeast corner of the Mexican Plaza de Casa Consistorial, it presided over an election that named this area Villa de la Santissima Trinidad de Las Libertad—Town of the Most Holy Trinity of Liberty. Five years later, the tree witnessed David G. Burnet, a local lawyer who practiced at the courthouse, as he went off to fulfill his duties as ad interim President of newly independent Republic of Texas. General Sam Houston and William B. Travis also had law offices on the square and Stephen F. Austin was known to visit the area.

    Over the years, Liberty square was the site of numerous political stump speeches. Successfully reconciling past loyalties, the plaza and courthouse are on Sam Houston Avenue, a block away on either side are streets still named for their old Mexican Leaders: Santa Anna and Cos.

    The Liberty Courthouse Oak is on the corner of Main Street and Trinity Avenue, in Liberty. Click here to read more about the Liberty Courthouse Oak.

    Liberty Courthouse Oak

    Bell County Charter Oak

    The spot chosen for the first election in Bell County was beneath a magnificent live oak, now known as the Bell County Charter Oak.

    On that historic day in April or May 1850, three men were appointed judges and each of the 30 to 40 men present orally voted for five special commissioners. These commissioners were given the specific task of organizing the new county, a task which included surveying it, locating a county seat, laying off the townsite, selling the lots at auction and erecting public buildings. Organization of the county was completed August 1, 1850, and the county seat was located on Nolan Creek, west of the Charter Oak, and was named Nolanville. However, on December 16 of the following year, the seat was moved to Belton. The county was named in honor of Texas' third governor, Peter Hansbrough Bell.

    Now within an electric cooperative enclosure, this tree can be viewed from Charter Oak Drive and serves as a living reminder of the first election ever held in Bell County. Click here to read more about the Bell County Charter Oak.

    Bell County Charter Oak

    Bosque County Oak

    Nestled on the crest of a small hill in southwest Bosque County stood the ancient Bosque County Oak whose dense crown provided a pleasant bower for the early settlers who voted in the county's first election, more than a century ago.

    On February 4, 1854, the Texas Legislature created Bosque County out of McLennan County and named a six-man commission to locate and purchase, or accept by donation, up to 320 acres of land located “as near the center of said county as practicable.”

    On June 27, 1854, the commission accepted two grants of land, both located at the present site of Meridian and named the county seat for its nearness to Meridian Knobs and Meridian Creek. Meridian was established on July 4, 1854. Later in August, three voting boxes were designated, one at the junction of Steele Creek and the Brazos River, a second at Meridian and the third under this beautiful live oak, between the present towns of Clifton and Valley Mills.

    The Bosque County Oak, known locally as the "Election Oak," died sometime in the 1990s. A state historical marker at the entrance to Tom Pool Park on Highway 6 is all that remains of this tree. Read more about the Bosque County Oak here.

    Bosque County Oak

    District Court Oak

    A few feet north of the District Court Oak, near Weatherford, is a vestige of the old Fort Worth-Fort Belknap Stageline Road.

    In 1842, James J. Beeman moved from Missouri to Texas and settled in the Dallas area. Shortly before Parker County was created, Beeman moved about 30 miles west of Fort Worth and built a log cabin behind this big oak tree.

    Beeman’s Fort, as it was known locally, was a welcome stop to weary travelers. When Parker County was created in 1855, Beeman’s Fort was the closest thing to being a town that the county could boast. The newly elected judge of the 16th Judicial District in Dallas was an old friend of Beeman’s. It was only logical that he should choose to hold the first session of the district court in Parker County at the homesite of his friend.

    On June 2, 1856, the first court was convened under this oak tree, with Judge Nathaniel G. Burford of Dallas County presiding. The site of the first session of this district court was marked by the State of Texas during the Centennial Year.

    The District Court Oak is located at the BenDora Brown Swiss Dairy, north of the town of Weatherford. Learn more about the District Court Oak here.

    District Court Oak

    Log Cabin Oaks

    Under these remnants of the Log Cabin Oaks, situated near the west bank of the San Marcos River, early settlers built a log cabin which served as the first school and as a community center at San Marcos for more than a quarter century.

    When Hays County was created and organized in 1848, the cabin served still another purpose—as the county's first courthouse. The first district court was held in the cabin in 1850. In 1853 a Presbyterian church and a Masonic lodge were organized in the cabin, and four years later a Baptist church was also organized there. The old cabin's longevity was probably due to its construction of durable cedar, cypress and elm logs, which were plentiful along the river.

    Much of the early history of Hays County was enacted in the shade of the Log Cabin Oaks, many of which were damaged when the cabin was destroyed by fire in 1874. Still, other trees in the grove were removed when the street was widened.

    The Log Cabin Oaks still stand today, and a historical marker was placed where the cabin once sat in San Marcos. Learn more about the Log Cabin Oaks here.

    Log Cabin Oaks

    Traders Oak

    In the spring of 1849, a military post was built on the site of the present Tarrant County Courthouse and named for General William J. Worth, a hero in the Mexican War. That same year, Henry Clay Daggett and Archibald Franklin Leonard built a log cabin behind a large live oak tree, known as the Traders Oak, just a mile from Fort Worth, and began operating the first successful business in the area.

    A few yards northwest of this tree is a flowing spring, around which Indians camped when they came to trade their pecans, furs and buffalo hides at the Daggett-Leonard store. By an act of the Legislature on December 3, 1849, Tarrant County was created from Navarro County.

    Chief Justice William C. Hurd of Dallas County appointed Colonel M. T. Johnson to hold an election for county officers. That first election was held at the Daggett-Leonard trading post sometime in 1850. The trading post was also the site of Tarrant County's first district court, which convened in November 1850. Judge Oran M. Roberts, who later became governor of Texas in 1879, presided over that court.

    The tree is in what is now Traders Oak Park, in Fort Worth. For more information on the Traders Oak, click here. 
     
    Traders Oak

    Kimble Court Oaks

    Accounts of the first district court session held in Kimble County in 1859 is where court was convened under the Kimble Court Oaks and boards were nailed between it and a smaller companion oak to serve as the judge’s bench.

    District Judge W. A. Blackburn presided. Since there was no jail, Texas Rangers, serving as jailors, chained their prisoners to nearby trees to await trial. The Rangers were in attendance not only to testify, but to protect the court, for these were desperate times and the frontier was still a hazardous area. Kimbleville, the first county seat and site of that first court session, never developed into a town, its position being later taken by Junction City.

    Only the Kimble Court Oaks, which cling to the brow of a riverbank that drops steeply some 80 feet to the Llano River below, remain to mark the site of that early court. Read more about the Kimble Court Oaks here.

    Kimble Court Oaks

    Commissioners Court Oak

    E. M. Powell, an early West Texas land surveyor, entrepreneur and philanthropist, drilled a water well on an arid site where now stands Ozona, the county seat of Crockett County. A “stone's throw” from the site of Powell's well stands a beautiful live oak, now known as the Commissioners Court Oak, which shaded the first session of the Commissioner's Court of Crockett County.

    The court convened on July 21, 1891. Its first order of business was a refund to Val Verde County for the cost of preparing Crockett County's first tax rolls. The second was an order to Sheriff John C. Perry to purchase two pairs of handcuffs, two pairs of leg irons and a single handcuff with a lock. The sheriff was also given the responsibility for operating the county waterworks. This consisted of a windmill-operated pump, a watering trough and a small cypress tank beside the windmill.

    The first district court was convened under this historic live oak in March 1892. Judge Kelso of Eagle Pass presided. The first man tried by the court was convicted and sentenced to five years in the penitentiary for horse theft.

    The Commissioners Court Oak is located at the corner of Avenue D and Waterworks Drive, in Ozona. Learn more about the Commissioners Court Oak here.

    Commissioners Court Oak
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